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Great Alliances

PIERRE BEAUBIEN

Pierre Beaubien was born in Baie-du-Ferbvre in the month of August 1796. He was the son of Jean-Louis Beaubien and Marie-Jeanne Robidas Manseau, and the Great Grandson of Michel Trottier dit Beaubien, Seigneur of the Rivière-du-Loup-en Haut. He entered the seminary of Nicolet at the age of 15 years and studied there until the end of the year 1815. While Jean-Baptiste Beaubien, his distant cousin was establishing himself in Chicago, Pierre was at the college of Montreal, where, after a year of philosophy, he decided to study medicine in France. Four years later, having succeeded with his classical studies, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts from the Academy of Paris. On 16 August 1822, at the same institution he was awarded a doctorate in medicine. He returned home during the Fall of 1827 and obtained the right to practice medicine in Quebec, which was granted Feb. 28, 1828.

When he returned to Canada, Abbot Roque his former professor who was very influential in religious circles in Montreal helped him get appointed as physician to several organizations, including the Sulpicians,the Congregation of Notre Dame, the Montreal General Hospital and Hotel-Dieu Hospital. In addition he was named the first health officer for the City of Montreal in 1832. He is credited with bringing the stethescope to Canada and was one one of the five doctors in charge of the Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery when it opened in 1849. At the age of 32 yrs, Pierre Beaubien was the most learned of his time and the first French Canadian to obtain a doctorate in medecine. He was interested in all aspects of life including music,literature,commerce and politics.

Pierre Beaubien met Justine Casgrain, the 25 year old widow of Dr. Charles Maguire through his friend and future brother-in-law Louis-Philippe Panet who spoke highly of her. The result was the marriage of Pierre Beaubien and Justine Casgrain on the 11 of May 1829. She was the daughter of Pierre Casgrain, Seigneur of Rivière-Ouelle and the sister of the Honourable Charles Eusebe Casgrain and Luce Casgrain Panet. The bride had a considerable dowry and a three year old son named Hannibal who Pierre Beaubien adopted. The couple settled in Montreal where eleven children were born. Six died at a young age,another drowned at the age of 20 years and four attained adulthood. Louis Joseph Benjamin Beaubien is the only one to have been married and to have ensured the presence of Beaubiens in Montreal descended from Pierre Beaubien and Justine Casgrain.

Upon his return from Europe, Pierre Beaubien joined a circle comprised of other exceptional men who made their resources available during the first half of the nineteenth century. They gave their time and a portion of their fortunes to set up the first network in healthcare and charity, as well as a political, economic and educational structure which the next century would inherit.

Pierre Beaubien had believed that his future lay in politics. As an active politician on the Montreal municipal scene, he entered the legislative assembly of United Canada, which sat in Montreal from 1844 until April 25,1849 when rioters destroyed the Parliament of United Canada. Following this event Montreal lost its title as capital. Beaubien refused to sit in a parliament that took him far away from his wife and children. After representing the riding of Montreal in 1843 and 1844, then Chambly in 1848 and 1849, he lost interest in active politics. In 1850 he became deeply involved in the development of the Montreal School of Medicine and Surgery. He thus resigned his seat on the board of the directors of the Montreal City and District Savings Bank, which he had co-founded in 1846

Pierre Beaubien's professional activities alone did not make him wealthy, since the sick were often unable to pay for the medicine and healthcare they received. His considerable fortune was due in a large part to a number of savvy real estate transactions. He was also the benificiary of land ceded to him by the Sulpicians, as well as goods and property received as a dowry from Marie-Justine Casgrain. His reputation as a "big land owner" is not exgaggerated. Over the years he reconnected with his rural roots buy buying large parcels of land in what were then the agricultural parishes of Cote-de-Neiges,Cote-Sainte-Catherine,Cote-Sainte-Louis, the eventual City of Outremont and others.

In 1853, the parish of Notre-Dame de Montreal decided to move the large Saint-Antoine Cemetery away from the City. The new cemetery was to be on land belonging to Dr. Pierre Beaubien. The area stretching over 115 acres located on the northwest side of Mount Royal. Sealed in 1854, the transaction brought Dr. Beaubien 3000 pounds. Dr. Pierre Beaubien gave his son Louis Joseph Benjamin Beaubien 22 lots in Cote-Saint-Louis, which covered a portion of the City of Outremont and today's Mile-End district in Montreal.

He died on Sunday, January 9 1881, in Outremont in the residence of his son, the Honourable Louis Beaubien. Marie-Justine Casgrain died in October 1882.

HONOURABLE LOUIS JOSEPH BENJAMIN BEAUBIEN

Louis Joseph Benjamin Beaubien was born in Montreal on July 27, 1837. After studying, like his father, at the College of Montreal, he devoted his time and energies to the development of family land which had become of great value. Located on the northern flank of Mount Royal, these properties enabled him the fortune to assert himself as a competent agronomist and a gentleman farmer. He traveled to France and England where he purchased cattle and thoroughbred horses. He chaired the Agricultural Society of the County of Hochelaga, and was the editor of the newspaper The Order.

In 1867, Louis Beaubien entered politics as a Conservative MP for the riding of Hochelaga . Throughout the period 1867-1874 where the deputies were forced to double their representation with both the federal and provincial governments he sat in the House of Commons in Ottawa and the Legislative Assembly in Quebec City. In 1876 he was made Speaker of the Quebec Legislative Assembly. A later Speaker of the Parliament of Quebec said of Beaubien; He does not abuse the word that is given to him, but uses it to systematically to defend the causes of agriculture and education . He worked in the legislature to colonize virgin areas, retain the population within the frontiers of Quebec,plot the new use of railways, and find effective communication tools to develop the country . Like his father, he expressed his atttachement to his countrymen by accepting , in 1882 the Presidency of the St. Jean Baptiste Society of Montreal,whose main objective was public education . In 1886, health problems forced him to temporarily abandon his political activities.

He returned to the Quebec Parliament in 1891 and was entrusted with the portfolios of Agriculture and Colonization. His project for an Agriculture School was realized in 1893 in Saint Hyacinthe. In 1846, his father was involved in the foundation of the City and District Bank of Montreal . In 1900 the Honorable Louis Beaubien layed the foundation for the Provincial Bank of Canada, and the same year, took the reins of the Saint Jean Baptiste Society again. Towards the middle of his career, he was one of the fifteen richest French Canadians, his fortune is estimated at more than half a million dollars.

At the time of retirement, he devoted himself to his personal affairs, clubs and associations as well as the movement against childhood diseases and tuberculosis. In 1875, as one of the largest land owners in Outremont he participated in its foundation. This is where he died, on July 19, 1915

SUZANNE LAURETTA STUART

Lauretta Stuart was born from the marriage of Sir Andrew Stuart and Charlotte Elmire Aubert de Gaspé. She would pass down to her descendants a remarkable legacy. Among her ancestors, Charles Legardeur de Tilly, who was the Governor of Trois-Rivières from 1648 to 1650, and a member of the Sovereign Council, the most important administrative body of the French colony. Lauretta Stuart's ancestors in her family tree also include the Juchereau de la Ferté,Coulon de Villiers,Tarieu de Lanaudiere,Jarret de Vercheres,Duperron Baby,Aubert de Gaspe and Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil and Chateauguay, father of the famous Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville pioneer of Ville Marie.

On May 31 1864, Louis Joseph Benjamin Beaubien, son of Pierre Beaubien and Marie Justine Casgrain, married Suzanne Lauretta Stuart in the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Quebec . Both the Beaubiens and Stuarts lived in the literary, political, judicial and social life of the country. These two families who ancestors had succeeded in the new world, shared much in common. Lauretta Stuart gave birth to thirteen children. Four boys and four girls lived to reach adulthood. Her son Charles Philippe Beaubien was named to the Canadian Senate and was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour by France. Senator Charles Beaubien's son Louis Beaubien was also named to the Canadian Senate. Her eldest son Joseph was elected Mayor of Outremont. Suzanne Lauretta Stuart died in Outremont, on February 27, 1936.